Olive Tears
by theoliverogue
Summary: Nepeta has always been red for Karkat, but he hasn't always felt the same way. From the meteor to the end of the game, a fanfiction following their relationship.
1. Tears Fall

**Note: I update this sporadically based on my schedule. Some updates will take longer than others, so I appreciate your patience! Thank you to all of you who post reviews; even if I don't respond to them, I do read them and appreciate your comments.**

**This is my first fanfiction, so I apologize if it's not great. I'm sorry if I'm doing something wrong. And now I'll stop apologizing so you can read!**

Nepeta sighed contentedly as she looked at her latest painting. Finally, she had gotten around to it. The smell of paint along with the thought of this ship actually going somewhere was almost enough to intoxicate her. She lay back on her elbows and admired her work. On the wall, a picture of her and Karkat was surrounded by red hearts. She wondered if she would ever have the courage to admit her feelings for him. And if he would have the same feelings for her. _Well it isn't going to happen today!_ she thought, _We only just moved onto this asteroid, and there is still a lot to do to get settled in!_ With that, she sat up and began to collect her painting supplies.

A few weeks later, the trolls began to grow bored. Some were glad to have the chance to relax a bit after the game. But for a certain autistic cat-troll, life on an asteroid was getting purrty boring.

Nepeta paced around the room for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. Equius had told her to stay with him at all times until they knew all the potential dangers that were on the asteroid. But everyone had stopped exploring out of boredom; all there seemed to be were empty rooms and corridors. But still, Equius wouldn't let her leave his side for a moment. Nepeta growled softly in frustration. All he wanted to do was work on his robots! She had made up her mind. As silently as she could, Nepeta got up and slipped out of the room. Hopefully Equius wouldn't notice.

The hallway was empty, as usual. Deciding to explore a bit, Nepeta wandered over to the transportalizer and stepped on. In seconds, she was standing in the main transportalizer room. There were several other pads like the one she was standing on that led to other places in the asteroid. Choosing one at random, she stepped on it and was taken to another empty hallway. It didn't look familiar to her, but since all the corridors seemed to look the same, Nepeta wasn't sure. She wandered around for a while, poking her head into rooms and exploring the large space. Some of the rooms had crates of supplies in them, or pieces of machinery, but most were empty. After about an hour, she found herself at a dead end. There was a single door, and voices could be heard from the other side.

Nepeta put her ear to the door. It sounded like Terezi and someone else, but she couldn't be sure. Carefully, she opened the door a few inches and looked inside. It was someone's room. It was sparsely furnished, and sealed boxes were stacked in various places. Whoever lived here hadn't taken the time to unpack. Nepeta glanced around to find the source of the voices. On the floor, leaning against a wall, Terezi and Karkat were talking. Oddly, Karkat wasn't yelling, which was why she hadn't recognized his voice. Terezi was complaining about how far away Karkat's room was, and Karkat was insisting that it was better this way because no one could find him. The conversation rambled on, and Nepeta began to grow tired of listening. She was about to leave when Terezi leaned over and kissed him. Nepeta's eyes widened. She watched as Karkat's surprised expression relaxed as he kissed her back. The kiss grew more passionate and Nepeta couldn't bear to watch any longer. She felt her chest tighten and her eyes fill with olive-tinted tears as she stood and ran back through the corridors.

She burst into Equius's room, not bothering to be stealth. She darted across the room to her room and slammed the door behind her. She could hear Equius calling to her, but she ignored him and collapsed onto the floor, sobbing.

"Nepeta. Are you alright? Where were you?" Equius asked from outside her door. When she didn't answer, he continued. "Nepeta, I'm coming in, alright?"

Taking care not to break the door, he entered and walked over to where Nepeta lay, crying. He sat down beside her.

"Nepeta, what happened? Where did you go? You see, this is why I told you not to wander off without me." Equius said, concerned.

Nepeta crawled over to him and curled up on his lap before replying. "I'm sorry Equius, I just wanted to explore…" she choked out between sobs.

"As long as you are unharmed, I suppose it's okay. As long as you don't go out by yourself again. But I still don't understand, what has made you so upset?"

"Well, I went exploring, and I didn't really find anything but empty rooms, but then I found a room with things in it, and it was Karkat's room, and he was in there with Terezi, and," she started crying again as she spoke, "and he and Terezi, they were there, together, and… and she kissed him. And then Karkat… Karkat kissed her." With that, Nepeta broke down into sobs once more.

Unsure of what to say, her moirail stroked her, comforting her in the only way he knew how.


	2. Paint and Chalk

She spent the next few days alone, except for Equius. He would visit her a few times during the day to make sure she ate, and to generally check up on his moirail. Each time he would ask if she was okay, she would insist she was, even though anyone could see she wasn't. Her eyes had begun to lose their playful sparkle, and she spent her days starring off into space. By the third day, the other trolls began to take notice of her absence. A few tried to message her on Trollian, but she never answered.

One morning, Nepeta woke up and found a present on the floor by her shipping wall. Curious, she tore the colorful paper and opened the box. Inside were a new set of chalk and some new paint bottles. At the bottom was a note.

_Nepeta,_

_We've noticed you've been gone. We hope you're alright. Equius says you're upset over something. Don't let it get you down; we've missed you. Take these and keep filling the walls with your pictures. Hope you feel better soon!_

The note wasn't signed. She wondered who could've cared enough to send it, besides Equius of course. The handwriting was too feminine and clean. Perhaps Kanaya? Well, it didn't really matter. She looked at the paint. Maybe it was time to update her shipping wall a bit.

When Equius came in later that day, she was painting. A stack of crates had been pushed in front of her OTP painting; the picture of her and Karkat could just be made out from the gaps. This puzzled him a bit, but maybe she was just trying to move on. She had finished several new pictures already, some that included blackrom romances as well, rather than just the usual redrom. There were also humans included in the ships.

Currently, she was sitting in front of another stretch of wall, one of the only spots that wasn't already occupied. She was putting the finishing touches on a picture of Feferi, standing next to an unfinished picture of Sollux. There was a red heart between them. When he approached her, she turned.

"Hi Equius!" she said cheerfully.

He was slightly taken aback by her sudden change of mood. Could painting really change her mood that easily? He didn't question it. As long as is moirail was back to normal, all was well. "Hello Nepeta, I take it you're feeling better today?"

She nodded. "Yup, I forgot how much fun painting is! Someone gave me some new chalk and paint, and I couldn't just let it go to waste! But I'm running out of room on the walls now."

"That could be a problem," Equius said. He thought for a second before continuing, "I suppose I could allow you to use the empty rooms in our hallway as well. As long as you promise to be extra careful."

Her face lit up. "Really Equius? I can? Then, I purromise to be extra, extra careful!" She got up and hugged him before dashing off to get her supplies.

Once she had gathered everything she needed, she headed out to the hallway. She paused at the first door and tried opening it. Locked. She sighed in relief. Little did Equius know, she had already begun to paint the empty rooms. She had found them one day when she was exploring inside the air vents. This first room was why she had been less upset that morning. Inside, she had begun to paint more pictures of her and Karkat. Even if he was with Terezi, she could still ship him with herself, because maybe one day they would break up, and she would have her chance. That realization had broken her spell of depression. But she still didn't want anyone to know, so she had locked the door.

The second room was open and unpainted. After setting up her supplies, she began to work. Over the next few days, she painted some more ships and once she was satisfied that she had covered every aspect of every relationship, she began to paint scenes from the trolls' and the humans' adventures.

Painting relaxed her and let her express her feelings in a safe way, almost like how her moirail built and destroyed his robots, but less violent. She put her heart into every artwork, and was proud of herself as she got better and better. Soon, some of the other trolls began stopping by to admire her works, as Equius spread the word of her new paintings. There were a lot of oohs and ahhs, as well as tears and laughter at the scenes of their adventures. Even Karkat and Terezi showed up once, though they left soon after when Terezi started licking the walls. Though that visit was painful, Nepeta kept up her cheerful appearance until everyone had left, and then promptly retreated into the air vents to visit her other room.

Once in the privacy of her room, she collapsed onto the floor and shut her eyes, trying to block out the memories of Karkat and Terezi's visit. After taking some deep breaths to calm herself down a bit, she grabbed her bucket of chalk and set to work. When she was finished, she looked down. A few tears escaped her eyes. Sometimes it seemed as though there really was no hope for this ship.

Suddenly, there was a sound from the door. Someone was trying to get in. And from the sound of it, they had a key to the door. Nepeta jumped up, knocking over the bucket of chalk, and leaped into the air vent, closing it quickly behind her. She fled to the safety of her room, where she lay on the ground, breathing heavily, wondering who would have wanted to get in.


	3. Confusion

"Karkat, we're over."

He couldn't seem to get those words out of his head. They echoed through his thoughts, playing over and over like one of those human' scratched records. The kind that the Dave human would have.

Dave. Just the name made him angry. _She let me for a human! For Dave…_ There was a tightness in his chest as his anger mixed with sadness. His vision began to blur red as tears began to form. He wiped at his eyes angrily. He didn't have time for this sappy bullshit. He continued down the hall at a brisker pace.

He was headed back to Equius and Nepeta's hive, to apologize to Nepeta for Terezi's earlier actions. Licking the paintings was not acceptable behavior in an art gallery, even though Terezi seemed to think it was okay. She had insisted that there was no need for an apology, but he still felt bad about it. This had all happened before the breakup. In fact, it was pretty much what had started the fight in the first place. But that didn't matter anymore. She had probably just been waiting for a good moment to tell him that she was with Strider anyways.

He turned the last corner and approached the door to the room. He opened it and peered inside. The lights were off, and no one seemed to be around.

"Nepeta?" he called into the shadows.

There was no reply, but there was a faint noise that seemed to be coming from the adjacent room. Curious, he left the room and walked up to the door of the next room. He leaned his ear on the cool metal of the door. He heard a noise that sounded like… crying? He turned the handle of the door, but it was locked. He growled in frustration and reached into his pocket, searching for The Key. He had been careful NOT to captchalogue it, and simply put it in his pocket. He had alchemized this special key one day, by combining Secrets of Lock Picking, a sonic screwdriver, and a normal key; all items that he had received from the humans at some point in time. Quite frankly, he had no idea how all those items became a key that opened any lock, but he wasn't about to question it. He turned the key in the lock, which let out a satisfying click. After returning The Key to his pocket, he opened the door and stepped inside.

His jaw dropped. All around the room, pictures of himself with Nepeta surrounded by red hearts adorned the walls. They were all drawn in the typical Nepeta style. He glanced around, but she was nowhere in sight. He walked slowly around the room, examining each picture. _She feels red for me? Since when? And why? _ When he had walked around the entire room, a thought occurred to him: Who had been in here crying only moments before? His gaze drifted to the floor, where he found his answer.

A chalk drawing, only recently finished. The all too familiar grey symbol of Cancer; the olive symbol of Leo. A heart around them, in red. It had clearly been drawing with a shaky hand, with lines that had been constantly smooth in the other works, now ragged. A few lines were blurred with tiny olive puddles. Tears. Off to the side, one of Terezi's buckets of chalk, with the chalk sticks scattered across the floor. It struck him as odd, seeing them like that, when the other supplies were neatly stacked in the corner, though he wasn't quite sure why it mattered.

Karkat took a step back, and then another, before turning and quickly exiting the room. It was too much to think about. He had just gotten dumped by Terezi a few hours ago, and now this? He shut the door behind him and walked back down the hall, the apology now forgotten, lost in thought.


	4. One Ship, Two Ships

Nepeta woke up the next day when her computer alerted her to a new message on Trollian. She had fallen asleep with it on her lap, talking to some other trolls. Now awake, she saw that Terezi was trying to contact her. She probably wanted to roleplay. Nepeta opened the chat.

gallowsCalibrator [GC] began trolling arsenicCatnip [AC]

GC: H3Y N3P3T4

GC: 4R3 YOU 4W4K3

GC: 1 GU3SS NOT

GC: 1LL JUST COM3 B4CK L4T3R TH3N WH3N YOUR3 4W4K3

AC: :33 *ac springs up and pounces on you*

AC: :33 wait! i'm awake! did you want to roleplay?

AC: :33 oops i mean

AC: :33 *ac says*

GC: 4CTU4LLY NO

GC: 1 W4S LOOK1NG FOR SOM3ON3 TO T4LK TO 4ND YOU W3R3 TH3 ONLY ON3 ONL1N3

AC: :33 oh! well you can talk to me, equius says i'm a great listener

GC: 4LR1GHT W3LL

GC: 1 BROK3 UP W1TH K4RK4T Y3ST3RD4Y

AC: :33 oh no! what happened? :((

GC: W3 FOUGHT 4 LOT 4ND 1 ST4RT3D LOS1NG 1NTR3ST

GC: BUT TH4TS NOT 1MPORT4NT

GC: WH4T 1S HOW3V3R 1S TH3 D4V3 HUM4N

GC: WH4T DO YOU KNOW 4BOUT H1M

AC: :33 not much

AC: :33 equius doesnt let me talk to them

AC: :33 why?

GC: JUST CUR1OUS

GC: H3 S33MS COOL

GC: FOR 4 HUM4N :]

GC: 4NYW4Y 1 H4V3 SOM3 BUS1N3SS TO T4K3 C4R3 OF

GC: COURT BUS1N3SS 1NVOLV1NG 4 C3RT41N L3MON COLOR3D S3N4TOR

AC: :33 okay! maybe we can roleplay later?

GC: W3 SH4LL S33 :]

gallowsCalibrator [GC] ceased trolling arsenicCatnip [AC]


	5. Old Ships, New Ships

Nepeta got up and began to pace around the room. Thoughts were spinning around in her head. As she tried to think, they slipped away like tiny fish in a cold stream. She growled. Why couldn't she think? She needed to focus. Suddenly, her foot caught on one of the many robot parts strewn around the room. She crashed to the ground, scattering bits of machinery around. Tears sprung to her eyes. She had walked around this room so many times before, why was it such a problem now?

"Nepeta? Are you alright?" Equius asked.

She heard his chair squeak and scape against the floor as he got up. She sat up and looked at her hands. They were cut and a small amount of olive blood seeped from the wounds. She was tempted to lick them like Pounce had done when she had gotten hurt as a little troll, but the last time she had tried that, Equius had scolded her. She missed Pounce dearly.

"I- I'm okay," she mumbled.

Equius looked at her hands. "No you're not," he said, "Let's go and see Kanaya. She'll know how to help."

Knowing it was no use to argue, Nepeta followed him out of the room and through the maze of corridors to Kanaya's hive. Tentatively, Equius knocked on the door, careful not to break it. After a few moments, Kanaya answered.

"Hello Equius, Nepeta. What can I do for you?" she asked.

"Nepeta has injured her hands and requires your assistance. I would help her but…" He looked at his hands. They knew what he meant. He was always being careful about his strength.

"Well, let me see what I can do," she replied, and let them in.

The room was cluttered with fabric bolts and bits of half-finished outfits. To anyone just looking, it would appear to be chaos, but if you looked closely, it was all very organized. She led them to a separate room, a bedroom, and motioned for Nepeta to sit on the bed. She hopped onto the bed, careful to not touch anything with her bloodied hands.

Kanaya left briefly and returned with bandages and a bowl of water with washcloths. "What happened?" she asked as she began to clean Nepeta's hands.

"Well, I was kind of distracted and I tripped on some of Equius's robot parts."

Kanaya glared at Equius and he began to sweat nervously. "Equius, you really need to clean up your mess in there. I would say someone is going to get hurt, but Nepeta already has."

Equius paused as if thinking of something to say, and then sighed. "I need a towel," he said, and left, saying, "I will return shortly, Nepeta."

The two sat in silence for a while as Kanaya began to bandage Nepeta's hands. They stung, especially after Kanaya had cleaned them, but Nepeta was silent. He mind was elsewhere, dwelling on a certain mysteriously blooded troll and his relations with a certain teal blooded troll.

"You have something on your mind," Kanaya said.

"Oh, it's nothing," Nepeta responded.

"Nepeta, you can tell me."

"Well," she paused, considering. Before they had left Alternia, she would have asked Equius for any advice she needed. But now, it seemed like he hated Karkat for bringing them into this, and that he was a low-blood. Her next choice would've been Aradia, but she was a robot now. She was left with Kanaya. "I'm having a bit of a problem."

"Oh?"

"See, I've… I've felt red for Karkat for a long time now. And I never had the chance to tell him. When we got here, he and Terezi… Well, they kind of got together. But, now they broke up. And Terezi is interested in the Dave human. I think. So…"

"So now you want to say something, but you're worried that if Terezi and Dave don't get together, that she will turn back to Karkat, and you don't want to lose your friendship with her."

Nepeta stared, open-mouthed. "How did you know?"

Kanaya looked away. "Let's just say I've heard this story before."

"So, what do you recommend? How did that story end?"

She almost visibly winced at this. "Your story won't end like mine did. That's for sure."

There was a pause. A heavy silence as memories replaced reality.

"No. I won't let that happen to you. I think you should talk to him. Maybe not tell him how you feel yet, because he's probably still upset over Terezi. But be open. Get closer to him. And then, when you're sure and he is ready, you can tell him."

"That sounds a lot better than my plan," Nepeta said, acknowledging her wisdom, "I'll do that then! Thanks Kanaya!"

As she thanked her, the door opened and Equius came in. He thanked Kanaya for her services and Nepeta smiled and nodded in agreement. The pair then left the jade-blood to her work. When they arrived back at their shared block, Equius insisted that he clean up the mess so that Nepeta wouldn't get further injury. He commanded her to return to her room, which she did gladly, her mind on other things. Once inside, she opened Trollian. She did this with some difficulty, seeing as her hands were bandaged. She found Karkat's name and clicked, but the mouse slipped and it clicked on Tavros's name instead. Oops. She quickly clicked out of that. As much as she enjoyed talking with him, she couldn't help him sort out his relationship and his feelings with Gamzee at the moment. She had a mission to complete. After trying a second time, she opened the proper chat window. Suddenly confident, she typed in her message, growling as she continually messed up the spelling. Stupid hands. Finally, she hit "send" and watched her message pop up in the box.

arsenicCatnip [AC] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

AC: :33 – Hey Karkat! :33 I know this will seem kind of intrusive but I heard you got dumped by Terezi

AC: :33 – Is it true? :oo

**Sorry for the long wait! School is really busy for me right now. But in a few weeks it should go back to the normal updating schedule, which is about every ten days. Thanks for your patience and your lovely reviews! And there will be KarNep fluff eventually, I promise! Just be patient! Also, my tumblr URL is the_olive_rogue. I will be posting updates and other information on my blog, in case you'd like to follow me and Olive Tears more closely. I also reblog lots of Homestuck ;)**


	6. Reminders of You

Karkat approached the door to his hive. Usually it was a pain that his hive was so far, because he had to walk so far to get to it. But it was also nice because it was harder for other, unwanted, trolls to find and the long walk often gave him a little bit of time to think about the day's events. He was usually angry and the long walk at a brisk pace gave him time to cool off a bit, but this time the confusion slowed his steps as he struggled to sort out his feelings. He still cared for Terezi, but it really hurt that she went off and ditched him for Dave. She hadn't even met the guy in person, and he was a human, and he was just… Argh. And on top of that, now Nepeta had feelings for him. And in a way it was flattering, but he wasn't sure what he felt about her. He had never really considered it.

He opened the metal door and winced at the loud high-pitched shriek of metal on metal. He kept forgetting to get Equius to fix it for him. He walked in and closed the door behind him with another loud shriek. His hive was fairly plain. He never really finished organizing and unpacking things, so there were boxes and stacks of things everywhere. He didn't really need anything besides his recuperacoon since he spent most of his time elsewhere on the meteor. But this time it was an exception. He needed to think. Or do something to keep his mind off of everything. The later would be easier, but the first was probably the better choice. But then again, he wasn't always known to make the best decisions, even though he was charged with being the esteemed leader of their group.

Which box was it? He couldn't remember. With a sigh he walked over to one of the boxes and opened it. Nope. How about the one under it? Wrong again. He continued through the rest of that stack and sighed when he didn't find what he was looking for. He considered how much better this was than actually thinking about his situation. No, this was definitely better, even if he wasn't getting anything done. He started on the next stack.

He grabbed the top box and set it down with a thump, sending a cloud of dust up and into his face and causing him to sneeze. He brushed the remaining particles off the top and opened the box. Yes! This is what he was looking for. Inside lay his precious collection of romcoms and romance novels, all neatly organized, just how he had left them. His obsession with this genre would probably seemed odd to the others, that is, if they ever knew. This was a closely guarded secret of his, and no one would ever know. Ever. He stroked the spines of the books almost lovingly before selecting one of his favorites: The Troll Who Loved His Moirail's Matesprit That Also Loved Him Back But Also Loved Her Matesprit. It had also been made into a movie, but of course, the book was always better. He left the rest of the books and movies safely inside the box and walked over to the wall where he usually sat when he was in his hive.

And then he remembered.

The last time he had sat there was when Terezi was over. And then a few days later, she left him. He growled and stood up. Why was everything a constant reminder of her? He tossed the book back over to the box. There was no way he could read that now. He stalked back over to the door and left, ignoring the ever present squeak of the door. He walked back to the transportalizer pads, his heart heavy. So much for not thinking about it. He stepped on the appropriate one to take him to the computer lab and was taken away.

Once at his computer, he opened Pesterchum. Maybe there was someone on that he wasn't completely fed up with. Well, Tavros, Nepeta, Eridan, and Sollux were all on, though Sollux hadn't been active in over an hour. Tavros was always absorbed in his complicated relationships with Gamzee and Vriska, so he was definitely not an option. Eridan was… Eridan, so no. And Nepeta…

A message appeared.

arsenicCatnip [AC] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

AC: :33 – Hey Karkat! :33 I know this will seem kind of intrusive but I heard you got dumped by Terezi

AC: :33 – Is it true? :oo

Well then. Word had already gotten out. And now he really couldn't escape it. Well, there was no turning back now.

CG: THANKS FOR BEING SENSITIVE NEPETA

CG: I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR ATTEMPT TO AVOID THE SUBJECT WITH ME

AC: :33 – Im sorry :((

AC: :33 – I was just curious

CG: YES

CG: THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION IS YES

AC: :33 – Oh

AC: :33 – Well I hope you arent sad or anything

AC: :33 – I mean more than you should be

AC: :33 – If that makes any sense?

CG: YEAH IT DOES

CG: THANKS I GUESS

**Sorry for the long wait! I haven't had much inspiration or time lately… But hopefully I'll have some more time during Winter Break to keep writing. Thanks for reading!**


	7. A Casual Invitation

AC: :33 – Youre welcome!

AC: :33 – :oo

CG: WHAT NOW

AC: :33 – I have an idea! :DD

CG: OH NO

AC: :33 – Oh yes!

CG: ALRIGHT LETS HEAR IT

CG: WHAT IS THIS UNDOUBTABLY SHITTY IDEA HAVE YOU COME UP WITH NOW

AC: :33 – You should come over and roleplay with me!

AC: :33 – That will keep your mind off of things! :DD

CG: NO

CG: THAT IS THE WORST IDEA I HAVE EVER HEARD IN THE ENTIRETY OF MY EXISTANCE

AC: :33 – Come on!

AC: :33 – It will be fun!

CG: ABSOLUTELY NOT

AC: :33 – Purrlease?

CG: NO

AC: :33 – Yes!

CG: NO

AC: :33 – Yes!

CG: NO

AC: :33 – Yes!

CG: NO WE ARE NOT STARTING THIS WHOLE YES NO BULLSHIT

AC: :33 – Purrlease? Purrety purrlease?

CG: IF I AGREE TO THIS SHITTY PLAN WILL YOU STOP ANNOYING ME

AC: :33 – Maybe :PP

CG: FINE ILL DO IT

AC: :33 – Really? :oo

CG: YES NOW HURRY UP AND TELL ME WHAT I HAVE TO DO BEFORE I COME TO MY SENSES AND CHANGE MY MIND

AC: :33 – Meet me at my hive and I will explain everything :DD

CG: FINE

CG: SEE YOU THERE I GUESS

carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering arsenicCatnip [AC]

Nepeta looked up from the screen, speechless. Awestruck. Karkat Vantas, the troll she had been crushing on for her whole life, had just accepted her invitation (with some purrsuasion) to come to her hive and roleplay. It was a dream come true. A miracle. Hurriedly she stood up and began straightening up her art supplies, which were scattered haphazardly around the room. Sure, their organization made perfect sense to her, but anyone else would see it as a complete disaster. As she cleaned, she wondered what the next few hours would look like. Karkat would come (He was purrobably walking over right now! Clean faster!) and she would greet him at the outer door and lead him to her room. Once there, she would casually show him her shipping wall (Though, not my OTP of course, that will remain hidden behind the crates. Speaking of, better make puurtain that you can't see it through the gaps!) and see what he thought of them (Oh, but what if he doesn't like them? No, he will like them, I'm pawsitive!). Then, they would sit down and she would explain to him how to roleplay. They would figure out a scenario and characters and then the real fun would begin.

Nepeta allowed her mind to wander as she envisioned the different outcomes. What kind of roleplay would ensue? Would it be action/adventure? Or maybe some kind of AU? Or maybe they would do a role-reversal like she and Equius often did…. Equius! She had completely forgotten! Panicked, she bolted to the door and poked her head out. Amid the piles of machinery strewn about the floor, sitting at his desk tinkering with some odds and ends, sat her moirail. If he were to get to the door first, or even find out that Karkat was coming over… She shuddered at the thought. But how was she supposed to get him away from their shared hive for a few hours? As she was thinking, he stood and walked over.

"Nepeta, I'm leaving for a few hours to look for more parts. Please do not leave the hive, it's very dangerous."

"Okay!" she replied. What a stroke of luck! Now, with Equius busy and away for the next few hours, everything would go according to plan. Incredulous at her good fortune, Nepeta returned to her cleaning, confident that everything would be perfect.

Karkat, however, was feeling quite differently. He leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling above. What was he thinking? Accepting Nepeta's invitation to roleplay? What, was he going to start a shipping wall too? He sighed. This was a _great_ plan to stop thinking about Terezi. Doing the thing that she too had pestered him about. Though, he was quite certain that Nepeta, at least, wouldn't want to roleplay court scenes and their various cases all day long. He logged out of pesterchum and turned off his computer. After one swift glance around his hive, he set off toward Nepeta and Equius's shared hive.

He walked down the corridor to the transportalizer pads and stepped onto the one that would take him to the closest pad to his destination. There was an odd sensation of being pulled apart and put back together before he stood on an identical pad in another part of the meteor. He set off down a similar corridor and almost ran into Equius as he turned a corner, not paying attention.

"What are you doing here, lowblood," Equius asked, surprised.

"I'm walking. What else would I be doing," Karkat answered, annoyed, "And how can you call me 'lowblood' if you don't even know what my blood color is?"

Equius looked startled for a moment; perhaps he was considering what would happen if he were actually a higher blood than he was. "I-I wouldn't know I suppose. Your refusal to tell anyone is quite frustrating."

It was true. He hadn't told anyone what his blood color truly was, and only Terezi knew because she could smell it. Terezi again. Would he never stop thinking about her? "Well, I haven't got all day. Are you going to let me through or what?"

Flustered, Equius moved out of the way. Karkat could hear him mumbling to himself about blood color as he passed. Karkat continued to the end of the corridor, where the familiar set of doors lined up in front of him. He walked by the room he had been in just days ago with Terezi, where she had licked the walls of Nepeta's gallery. The first in the line of events leading to what he was doing now: Going to a cat troll's hive to roleplay in a feeble attempt to keep his mind off of her. It all seemed pretty stupid.

He walked to the last door, raised his fist, and knocked.

**If you're reading this, thank you! Especially if you've been around here for a few updates! I know I'm certainly not the fastest author out there, so I appreciate your patience. I promise, there will be KatNep fluff at some point. I know it's been pretty lacking (I mean, they're not even together yet! What kind of KatNep fic is this?), but I ask as always for your understanding and patience with me. Thanks for reading, and as always I love reviews, criticism, praise, anything you want to give me!**


	8. Smile

Nepeta jumped at the sound of the knock at the door. Her heart leapt. Karkat was finally here. She looked around at the half-cleaned state of her hive and then dashed out the door and through Equius's part of the room. Nervous and excited, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

There he was. Karkat, the troll of her dreams, at the door of her hive. She forced herself to not blush and she smiled awkwardly at him, unsure for a moment, at what to say. Her mind was blank. "Umm... Hi?" she stuttered.

She mentally face-palmed. _Hi? Really? Is that the best you could do, Nepeta? You've been waiting for this moment for how long now? And all you can say is "Hi?"_

"So, are we just going to stand around all day, or are we going to do this roleplaying thing?" Karkat asked, clearly uncomfortable. He was glancing from her face to the ground, nervously shifting from one foot to the other.

Nepeta realized that they were still standing in the doorway. "Of course! I'm sorry, I guess I just kind of... yeah." She stepped out of the way, even more flustered than before. This troll had quite an effect on her. She closed the door behind him. "I'm sorry for the mess. Equius and I aren't exactly the cleanest of trolls," she apologized, sidestepping a pile of robot parts and a puddle of oil.

She led the way down a path only really visible to her that she used to get to her room every day_. A hop here over this pile, a long step and then a short one to get over there._ It was natural for her, but since Karkat was there, watching, she found herself less sure of her footing and made sure she was perfectly balanced before making the next series of jumps. Once she was in a larger clearing about two-thirds of the way to her room, she turned to see how Karkat was doing. She almost giggled as she watched him stumble and curse. Where she could deftly avoid an unseen robot head, he misjudged his jump and almost fell, throwing out a string of profanity as he barely caught himself in time to avoid falling face-first into a puddle of oil. She found it quite humorous, but she was afraid to giggle in case he would be offended.

"Gosh, Nepeta, how do you live in here? It's like a deathtrap or something," Karkat complained.

"Oh, I manage. I'm kind of used to it by now." Nepeta answered shyly. It was still amazing to her that he was even here, and that he even bothered to give her the time of day. She nimbly made it the last third of the way across the room and reached her door. Nervously, she glanced inside to make sure it was still straightened up. Satisfied, she looked back at Karkat, who was still traversing the minefield of machinery. She smiled. Maybe someday he would be as deft as her at crossing the floor, perhaps because he would be so used to coming over. Wouldn't that be a dream come true.

Nepeta watched as Karkat tried to clear the last bit of machinery. She knew even before he crashed into her that he had misjudged his leap. She had an eye for such things, being a skilled huntress, especially after making many mistakes herself. There was no time to dodge, so she braced, but to no avail. He slammed into her, sending both of them crashing to the ground. She was slightly dazed after hitting her head on the floor, but she opened her eyes and saw with perfect clarity. Karkat had landed on top of her, unintentionally pinning her to the ground. She felt blood rise to her cheeks and she blushed. watched Karkat's confused expression turn into embarrassment. He scrambled off of her and stood, apologized, and held out his hand to help her up. She accepted his hand and felt his strength as he helped her up.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay? You didn't get hurt or anything, right?" Karkat asked, worried.

"It's fine. I'm okay," she replied, still blushing furiously. She hoped it wasn't too noticeable. She thought it was sweet that he cared, even though they weren't that close. "Equius and I really should clean up a bit, huh," she giggled, trying to ease some of the awkwardness. The scowl vanished for a quick moment and Nepeta noticed him look at her for a second longer than normal. She blinked in surprise and it was gone. Had Karkat just... smiled? At her? He never stopped scowling, much less smiled. She herself began to smile a little. Already she had fallen in love with that smile; the way it lit up his face and how he looked... happy, even if only for a second. Now that she thought of it, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen him happy, if ever. Even when he had been with Terezi, he never quite seemed happy.

"Well, now the hardest part is over!" she said, and gestured toward the open door behind her. "Would you like to come in?"

"Yeah, let's just get this over with," Karkat replied. He seemed strangely quiet.

Nepeta led the way into her room. It was more of a large hallway really; it was straight and then turned sharply to a dead end, except for an air vent that led to the labyrinth of air ducts.

"Well, here it is. Nothing special really." Nepeta said, gesturing around the room. She plopped down on a cushion that was stacked among others in a corner and invited Karkat to do the same. "So, what do you know about roleplaying?"

**Thanks for reading! I based this chapter off of a scene in a roleplay with Wildz2728. This is just a small taste of real Katnep that will be coming up, so make sure you're following the story so you don't miss anything! As always, thank you for your continued support, and reviews are always appreciated.**


	9. Disaster

Smooth move Karkat. Smooth as a freaking human blended drink. Falling on top of her? What the heck was that? He wanted to die right then and there.

He wanted to be mad and blame Equius for not keeping his hive clean, but for some reason all he could think about was Nepeta's blushing face underneath him and the feeling of her skin as he helped her up. She was… cute.

Argh! What was he thinking? He was _not _in love with this cat troll! And that was the end of it!

Karkat stepped inside Nepeta's hive and looked around. It was pretty odd. It was more of a hallway than a room really. From where he was, he could see that it made a sharp corner and continued on past where he could see. And that wasn't the only odd part. All the walls were covered from floor to ceiling with paintings, much like her other art room. A lot of her ships were on the walls, with several symbols around them. Some crossed out and some circled or redrawn. He assumed she must have done this in her old cave also. Maybe that's why the whole place was sort of off. She did used to live in a cave.

"It's… nice," he said awkwardly. God, could he not do anything right today? At this rate she'll tell him to leave.

She invited him over to sit down on the cushions that were stacked in a large pile in the corner of her hive. He chose a large fluffy one that was toward the opposite edge of where she was sitting. He stopped looking at the ground and turned so he could see her face. There was still a slight olive coloring to her cheeks and she had a small smile on her face. Her eyes were bright and clear as they stared back at him. She really was beautiful.

"Karkat? Are you awake?" she asked, playfully. She had one eyebrow raised and her head slightly tilted to one side. She seemed as if she was laughing to herself. At him.

"Of course I am!" he snapped. This day was just getting better and better.

"Well I asked you what you knew about roleplaying and you didn't answer me," she chuckled.

"Oh, uhh…" _Great, now I sound like Tavros._ "Well I used to roleplay a little with Terezi, but she always wanted to do court cases and executions and stuff."

"So you already know what to do then. Purrfect!" she said, clearly excited.

"Uhh, yeah I guess." Why was she so hard to talk to now?

"Okay, what kind of roleplay do you want to do? We could do something like Terezi and I used to do, when we used to roleplay as the type of animal our lusus was. Or we could do a role-reversal like Equius and I do. Or some kind of adventure. Like a treasure hunt!"

"Whatever you want." His head was spinning.

"Okay, let's do a role-reversal! I'll be you, and you can be me!" she decided. She took her blue cat hat off, freeing her hair. It was messy, but in a purposeful way. As he was staring, she shoved the hat onto his head and giggled. Then she turned away.

Karkat repositioned the hat a little. It was surprisingly soft. He was nervous for some reason. _This is ridiculous. Why am I so nervous? It's not like she's intimidating or anything._

She turned back and had a scowl on her face and her arms crossed, but he could tell it was hard for her to keep from laughing. He cracked a small smile. Ugh, what was with him? With this smiling business and the nervousness. And he was starting to feel sick to his stomach now.

"Hey Nepeta,"

She looked up and frowned slightly. "Are you okay? You look kinda pale."

"Yeah, I think I'm getting sick." He took off her hat and stared at it in his hands. "I think I should just go." He was already messing everything up. Why not just leave now?

"Are you sure? I mean, if you really feel sick I guess you should go," she replied, "Oh! But I'm not saying I don't want you here. Or anything. I mean, I like having you here." She seemed kind of flustered and looked away in embarrassment.

Why did her saying that make his heart race? He pushed the hat into her hands and stood up.

"D-do you want me to walk you back to your hive?" she asked timidly.

"No, I think I can make it back to my own hive," he snapped. Shit. Why was he being so mean to her?

She winced and then stood and walked with him to the door, trailing behind slightly and keeping her eyes on the ground. Idiot! What was wrong with him? He knew that she liked him, she basically had a whole shipping _room_ dedicated to them. And now he was treating her like shit.

They had made it through Equius's hive to the door when Karkat, lost in thought, clipped Nepeta on the last jump and sent her crashing to the ground, while he landed perfectly on his feet.

He mentally slapped himself in the face. This was going so well. This is what, the second time today that he had screwed up the jump and caused her to fall? He rushed over and found her on her knees, staring down at her hands. They were bound up in bandages, but there was a bit of olive that was starting to seep through. How had he not seen them? He had even helped her up once that day. He must have been distracted. A picture of her blushing face came to mind again.

He shook his head to clear it. Now was not the time to try and sort out his feelings. He looked down at her. She was shaking and crying quietly. He'd really done it this time. She must have hurt her hands earlier, and then landed on them just now. She would never invite him over again at this rate. He got on his knees beside her and tried to apologize.

"Shit Nepeta, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to… uh, push you. Again." Great, this was sounding so sincere. "Are you okay?" Of course not, dumbass! He wasn't very good at the whole, apologizing thing.

She nodded that she was okay, but anyone could see that she wasn't. Her hair had fallen forward and shielded her face, but he could see the tears falling and hear her crying. He sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. She wiped her eyes and took a few shaky breaths before standing up. She walked over to the door and opened it, flinching as she had to use her damaged hands.

Karkat stood and walked over. "I'm really sorry Nepeta," he said again.

"It's okay," she said quietly, "I'm okay. I hope you feel better."

He didn't feel sick anymore. Just guilty. "Don't worry about me," he said, "Just make sure that you take care of yourself, alright?"

She nodded and closed the door.

He walked away down the hallway, mentally kicking himself the whole way. He really messed up, and she probably never wanted to see him again. And that made him sad for some reason.

"Lowblood! What are you still doing here?" Equius. The gruff voice made him look up. The blue blooded troll was coming back. He was looking at Karkat with a mixture of surprise and accusation. Karkat kept walking. Equius called out to him a few more times, but then gave up and continued to his hive. He would find out soon enough what had happened to his moirail, and then he would come for the one responsible.

Karkat walked all the way back to his hive, his mind on Equius and Nepeta. Oddly enough, his problems with Terezi seemed distant and unimportant now. He closed the door to his hive and sank to the ground. Pictures of Nepeta's face seemed to cloud his thoughts. Smiling, laughing. The unique shade of olive on her cheeks. And that same shade falling down her face, and the look of hurt that accompanied it. The bandages on her hands. There was olive there too.

He was such an idiot, making her cry like that. He put his face in his hands.

_But I thought I was red for Terezi._

**Thanks for reading! Don't forget to favorite and review! I want to hear your feedback.**


	10. A Lesson in Apologies

Nepeta closed the door. What had gone wrong? Had she said something? Or done something? The pain in her hands seemed insignificant when compared to the sadness that weighed down in her heart. Tears sprang to her eyes once more and she darted back to her hive. Equius would probably be back at any moment, and she didn't want him to see her like this. He would worry and ask what happened.

She didn't stop at her hive. Instead, she ran straight into the air ducts and into her secret shipping room. She hadn't been in here since yesterday. It seemed like so long ago now. She walked over to the door and tested it. Still locked. It didn't look like whoever had been in here yesterday hadn't touched anything. Maybe it had just been her imagination.

She sat on the ground with her back against the door, staring at her hands. The bandages seemed to mock her now. _What a clumsy idiot, thinking that he actually wanted to spend time with me. I probably scared him off with all of the roleplaying and the shipping wall and being a stupid clumsy… idiot._ Nepeta looked up. The dedication to her ship was plain to see. The chalk drawing was still on the floor, and the chalk sticks scattered around haphazardly. Numbly, she began to collect them and place them neatly into their container.

_I had one chance, and I ruined it._

The room got blurry again and she rubbed her eyes. She set the chalk in its proper place amongst her supplies and yawned. Today had been such a long day. Tiredly, she sat back down against the door and looked around. This was her OTP. Karkat and Nepeta. Nepeta and Karkat. That's how it had always been, ever since the day they had met. She remembered those first moments on Trollian, and the conversations that led to him asking her to be on the red team with him. It had been a dream come true! But alas, Equius told her no, and who was she to go against his wishes? But they had finally met up at the end of the game. And now they were stuck on the meteor together, flying toward an unknown destination.

Fate had presented her with the perfect opportunity to get close to him. And she completely blew it.

No. There was still hope. This was her OTP, was it not? She couldn't let this simple mistake get in her way! It would be an insult to the very concept of one's One True Pairing! There had to be a way to fix this. But what?

Meanwhile, at the Vantas hive…

Karkat stared blankly at the wall across the room. Sitting here thinking was getting him nowhere fast. He stood and looked around. The boxes that held his still-packed stuff were gathering dust in his procrastination to unpack them. The only thing that he had really done to move in at all was set up his computer and open up all those boxes of books. What to do, what to do? He really should unpack.

He walked over to his computer and sat down heavily. His cycle of procrastination continued. Tomorrow he would unpack. He deftly typed in his password and opened pesterchum. He needed to talk to someone. Didn't that seem to help solve everyone else's problems? He scrolled through the list of his chums. Eridan was on, as usual, along with Equius, Vriska, Terezi, and Feferi. He sighed, defeated and irritated. Why was it that whenever he actually wanted to talk to someone, no one was ever on? Half-heartedly, Karkat opened up some of his old files and skimmed through them. Most of them were half-finished computer codes and viruses. He could almost see himself before the game, crouched over his computer, his face inches from the screen, typing like mad to try and write these.

Everything had been so simple then. No complicated saving the planet business, no complicated feelings, no flying through space on a meteor. He could almost convince himself that he wanted to go back, but in his heart he knew that his life then had been no better, just different. Now he actually had something that resembled a group of "friends," and his life actually seemed to have some sort of meaning. He was supposed to be saving the universe or something, right?

Karkat realized that his eyes were closed. When was the last time he had slept anyway? Time was different on the meteor. There was no night and day anymore, and everyone just slept when they felt like it. Sure, they had established some sort of time and date keeping method, but now that there was no sun, everyone established their own sleeping schedule. It didn't matter anyway. Karkat couldn't remember the last time he had gotten any sleep, and right now seemed like the perfect time to check out from reality for a while.

There was an alert from pesterchum. Karkat blinked in confusion for a second as he was dragged back to the real world. He sat up, wincing as his spine straightened after sleeping in an awkward position. How long had he even slept, five minutes? He glanced around tiredly for the source of the noise. Nepeta was on. He sighed. He didn't want to deal with this right now.

arsenicCatnip [AC] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG]

AC: :33 – Hi Karkat

AC: :33 – I hope youre feeling better

AC: :33 – Do you have a second? I want to tell you something

AC: :33 – Umm so you didnt answer a few hours ago so I guess you are busy so I will just tell you and you can respond later if you want

AC: :33 – Okay well first Im really sorry and I dont really know what I did to make you mad but whatever it was I didnt mean to!

AC: :33 – And I hope you dont hate me now because I really like talking to you and I had a lot of fun when you were here

AC: :33 – But I understand if you dont like me anymore and dont want to talk to me because whatever I did I must have messed up pretty badly DD:

AC: :33 – And thats it really

AC: :33 – Im sorry )):

Karkat stared at the message, confused. Wasn't he the one that messed everything up? Why was she even apologizing? She hadn't done anything wrong. In fact, her behavior was completely justified when compared to his actions. He had been the one to actually hurt her, where as she had been nothing but nice and polite.

CG: NEPETA I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE RAMBLING ON ABOUT

CG: YOU DIDNT EVEN DO ANYTHING WRONG

CG: I SHOULD BE THE ONE APOLOGIZING TO YOU FOR BEING A HUGE JERK

CG: SO

CG: IM SORRY

AC: :33 – But didnt I make you upset?

AC: :33 – I thought that was why you left

AC: :33 – I mean other than being sick

CG: WHAT

CG: NO I WAS JUST SICK

CG: BUT IM FINE NOW

CG: I HAD A LOT ON MY MIND

AC: :33 – Oh

CG: ANYWAY LETS DROP THIS WHOLE APOLOGIZING THING

CG: YOU DIDNT DO ANYTHING AND I WAS A HUGE JERK END OF DISCUSSION

CG: MOVING ON

AC: :33 - :/

CG: SO WHY DO YOU CAPITALIZE THINGS WHEN YOU TALK WITH ME

CG: I NOTICED THAT YOU DONT EVER DO THAT WITH TEREZI

CG: SAME WITH THE CAT PUNS

AC: :33 – Oh well you told me once that it was annoying to you

AC: :33 – So I stopped

AC: :33 – I didnt want to annoy you

CG: OH

CG: WELL I DONT REMEMBER SAYING THAT

CG: ACTUALLY I FIND IT KIND OF

CG: CUTE?

CG: SORRY IT WAS KIND OF A WEIRD THING TO POINT OUT

**I'm getting pretty lazy about these updates, and I feel bad for that! But it's not over yet! In fact, it isn't anywhere close to being done yet; I just haven't been feeling up to writing it lately. But, I finally pushed myself to deliver this super overdue update! I appreciate that you all have been so patient with me. It means a lot! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave me your comments!**


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